Adjustable container return device for a variable stroke lifter system in a packaging apparatus

Abstract: An adjustable container return device 10 for use with a lift arm 26 of a variable stroke lifter system 14 for lifting variable height containers 38, includes a vertically oriented rod 18 threadedly movable at its bottom end relative to the lift arm 26; a laterally extending member 42 operatively connected to the top end of the rod 18 for vertical movement therewith; a retention mechanism 44 operatively connected to the rod 18 for retaining the laterally extending member 42 in a selected radial direction so as to extend across an upper edge of an adjacent container 38; and an actuator mechanism 48-52 for rotating the rod 18 while permitting the rod 18 to slide longitudinally, and thereby threadedly raising and lowering the rod 18 relative to the lift arm 26, such that the laterally extending member 42 accommodates different height containers 38.

Description: This invention relates to packaging apparatus, especially to variable stroke lifter systems, particularly for lifting containers in bottom-up liquid filling operations. For filling containers with liquids, it is well-known to use a so-called "bottom-up" filler technique in order to eliminate the build-up of foam. In this technology, either the filler nozzle is lowered into the container and then raised during the filling operation, or the container is lifted around the filler nozzle and then lowered during the filling operation, with the two separating at a rate commensurate with the flow rate of the liquid. When it is the container which is lifted and then lowered, it is customary to employ a system wherein either a vacuum cup or a suitable cross bar is mounted on the end of a vertical actuator for engaging the bottom surface of the container. A satisfactory vacuum arrangement is shown and described in US-A-4,712,665. Various cam arrangements are also known for lifting a container from a shelf or conveyor to accommodate bottom-up filling thereof as the container is lowered from around a filler nozzle, for example as disclosed in US-A-1,993,367; US-A-2,100,359; US-A-2142257; US-A-2,605,948; US-A-2,896,381; US-A-4,084,626; US-A-4,388,795; and US-A-5,195,565. Of the above referenced patents, one, namely, US-A-5,195,565 discloses means for changing the lift height to accommodate different size containers; not only the stroke of a vertical, container-lifting member, but also the stroke of a vertical, container-lowering or-return member can be adjusted. It is known that the stroke of a vertical, container-return member may be manually changed by making the member in two or more elongate parts and then manually altering the overall length of the member, using a pull-pin, hair-pin, or wing nut. However, with aseptic filling (within which is included sterile filling for the purposes of the present Specification), manual access by an operator to the aseptic chamber of the packaging machine is required to perform the adjustment and this then necessitates re-sterilization of the chamber. US-A-956,286 discloses a beer bottle filling machine in which bottles are advanced around a turret including a ring of bottle rests upon which the bottles stand. Each bottle rest is rigidly and centrally mounted on the upper end of a depending stem, passing freely through a hole in the outer end of a radial, horizontal, bearing bar. The lower end portion of each stem is adjustably secured in a first sleeve rigidly connected to a second sleeve, the latter being vertically adjustably secured to an upwardly extending rod connected to a piston of a vertical, pneumatic, piston-and-cylinder device. Each rest has an upwardly extending peripheral flange provided with a vertical aperture within which is freely fitted a vertical rod. A set screw is threaded in the rear exterior wall of the aperture and bears against the latter vertical rod to secure the same vertically adjustably. That rod has its upper portion formed as a horizontal double loop, namely an inner loop closed toward the operator and an outer loop open toward the operator. Such outer loop permits the lateral introduction of the neck of a bottle therein as the latter is laterally placed upon the bottle rest, thereby ensuring the alignment of the bottle mouth with its corresponding filler nozzle, as the bottle is placed on its appropriate bottle rest with its neck fitting within the outer open loop. At the bottom of its vertical stroke, each bottle rest is supported by a radial arm of a horizontal spider the level of which is vertically adjustable by means of a nut screwed upon an externally threaded vertical tube, the spider resting upon the nut. Various different modes are disclosed for adapting the machine to fill bottles of differing sizes. In one mode, there are employed the vertically adjustable spider, diametrical reducers mountable upon the bottle rests, and filling tubes each of sectional construction. In a second mode, there are employed the sectional filling tubes and supplemental bottle rests mountable upon the bottle rests. In a third mode, there are employed non-sectional filling tubes, the diametrical reducers and supplemental mouthpieces. US-A-1922356, on which the preamble of the independent claim is based, discloses a liquid dispensing machine for filling empty or partially filled cans. The cans are advanced around a turret upon can supports which are vertically movable by means of vertical elevating rods the lower ends of which ride on an annular camming rail whereby the rods and their can supports are vertically reciprocated. Extending transversely of the rods are respective arms oscillatable in respective vertical planes by the reciprocation of the rods. As the arms approach their fully raised positions they come to bear on and lift the lower ends of vertical control rods for liquid-dispensing valves. The control rods are connected at their upper end zones by way of radial arms to vertical, valve rods carrying at their lower ends valve closure members of filling valves. Interposed in each control rod is a turnbuckle whereby the overall length of the control rod can be adjusted. The inner end zone of each radial arm can come to bear upwardly against a vertically adjustable stop when the control rod associated therewith is lifted, whereby the outer end zone of the radial arm is swung upwards to lift the associated valve rod to open the valve as the can support and thus the can approach their upper positions. Each radial arm includes a hub through which the control rod extends and which is vertically adjustably attached to the control rod by means of a transverse pin. US-A-1922356 states that the machine may be readily adjusted to accommodate cans of various sizes, and each of the individual valve mechanisms is independently adjustable so as to insure most effective filling without wasting material, and that such adjustment may be effected with the aid of the turnbuckles, and of the stop screws and the pins. US-A-3559702 discloses a container filling machine including a rotary turret around which the containers are advanced upon respective supporting trays. The trays are reciprocated vertically with the aid of respective pneumatic motors urging roller followers upwardly against a camming ring arrangement. The camming ring arrangement includes a vertically adjustable cam positioned at the filling zone of the turret and the elevation of a camming edge of which determines the vertical position of the trays and the containers during filling. By lowering the cam, the containers will have a lower position during filling, thereby increasing the height of fill in the containers. The cam is adjusted vertically by means of threaded nuts fixed thereto and encircling vertical threaded studs. The studs are rotated by a common motor or a manually operated crank, by way of mitre gears and shafts. The turret includes a rotary head assembly which is rotatable with, but telescopically vertically movable relative to, a central column. A threaded nut fixed to the head assembly receives a single, vertical, threaded post which is rotatable, through shafts and mitre gears, from a nut for receiving a spanner head. The turret also includes an overhead cam assembly supported upon vertical sleeves themselves supported, by way of threaded nuts, upon four vertical, threaded posts which are connected into the mitre-gears-and-shafts transmission to the threaded post connected to the head assembly. The four posts are interconnected for driving purposes by a chain-and-sprockets arrangement. The drive from the nut for receiving a spanner head can rotate the single threaded post and the four threaded posts simultaneously so that the head assembly and the overhead cam assembly can be moved vertically in unison, or the drive can be uncoupled from the single threaded post so that the overhead cam assembly can be moved vertically relative to the head assembly. Filing stems insertable into the containers are vertically reciprocable by the overhead cam assembly, which includes a vertically movable part displaceable by rotation of vertical, threaded posts by means of a handwheel via a flexible spindle and worm-and-wheel arrangements. It is believed that the changing of the stroke of the container-return member in an aseptic chamber has been performed by a servo drive controlled from externally of the aseptic chamber by means of a computer. However, this is an expensive and complex way of changing the stroke. According to the present invention, there is provided apparatus comprising a reciprocatory, substantially vertically oriented, elongate member for driving a packaging element in a substantially vertical stroke, an oscillatory member connected to said elongate member for reciprocating said elongate member longitudinally, and adjusting means connected to said elongate member for adjusting said elongate member substantially vertically relative to said oscillatory member, thereby to adjust said stroke, said adjusting means comprising intermediate means intermediate said oscillatory member and said elongate member and whereby rotation of said elongate member about a longitudinal axis thereof relative to said oscillatory member is converted into linear longitudinal motion of said elongate member relative to said oscillatory member, characterized in that said adjusting means also comprises actuating means adapted to rotate said elongate member about said longitudinal axis relative to said oscillatory member and to permit said elongate member to move in a direction of said longitudinal axis relative to said actuating means while rotating. Owing to the invention, it is possible to adjust the stroke of a packaging element simply and reliably. The packaging element may be a packaging container or part of a packaging machine. By means of the invention, it is possible to provide an improved adjustable stroke arrangement for accommodating the vertical reciprocation of a packaging element, either a filler nozzle or a container, in bottom-up filling of various sized containers. The arrangement may include a circumferentially fixed, vertically slidably adjustable, retract-assist finger for cooperation with various height containers during the bottom-up filling operation. Preferably, the apparatus comprises wall means bounding an aseptic chamber, transporting means for transporting through the chamber a container to be filled while in the chamber, filling means adapted to fill the container while the container is in the chamber, driving means extending into the chamber for driving the container in a substantially vertical stroke within the chamber relative to the filling means, and mechanical operating means disposed externally of the wall means and mechanically connected to the adjusting means and whereby the adjusting means is operable from externally of the wall means. In this way, it is possible to adjust the stroke of a container within the aseptic chamber without risking introduction of contamination into the chamber. Thereby, it is possible to provide a remotely adjustable carton return means, as opposed to a pull-pin or similar device for which an aseptic chamber must be ingressed. The carton return means may be a retract-assist finger formed on the upper end of a vertically movable rod, with one of a bevel gear mechanism and a gear box adapted both to rotate the rod and permit the rod to slide vertically therethrough. The bevel gear mechanism or the gear box may include a square centre opening through which a square cross-section segment of the rod is slidably mounted, with the rod including a round cross-section threadably connected for up or down movement through a threaded opening formed in a member operatively connected to a lift arm. In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Figure 1 is a sectional, end elevation of a variable stroke container lifter system embodying an adjustment arrangement for accommodating the lifting and lowering of various height containers relative to a fixed filler unit; Figure 2 is a sectional, side elevation taken along the plane of the line 2-2 of Figure 1, and looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the Figure 2 structure; Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane of the line 4-4 of Figure 3, and looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 5 is a sectional, end view taken along the plane of the line 5-5 of Figure 3, and looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane of the line 6-6 of the Figure 2 structure, and looking in the direction of the arrows; Figure 7 is a sectional, side elevation taken along the plane of the line 7-7 of Figure 6, and looking in the direction of the arrows; and Figure 8 is a cross-sectional view taken along the plane of the line 8-8 of Figure 2, and looking in the direction of the arrows. Referring now to the drawings in greater detail, Figure 1 illustrates part of a carton forming, filling and sealing machine including a bottom wall 9 bounding an aseptic chamber 11, and a multiple position container return system 10, including an adjustment device 12. The system 10 and device 12 are adaptable for use with a variable stroke container lifter system, a portion of which is represented at 14. The system 14 is not part of this invention and may be comparable to the variable stroke container lifter system illustrated and described in US-A-5,195,565. The system 10 includes a pair of parallel rods 16 and 18 connected to, and extending upwardly from, a block 20 which is pivotally connected via a camming slot 22 formed in the centre portion of the block to a suitable end segment 24 of a lift arm 26 of the lifter system 14. The rod 16 is round in cross-section for its full length, while the rod 18 is made in three segments fixed together end-to-end and is round in cross-section at its lower and upper segments 18a, and square in cross-section at its intermediate segment 18b. The lower round segment 18a is threadedly connected to a threaded opening 27 formed in the block 20. A container indexing device (driving means not shown), represented at 28, may be pairs of upper and lower chains 30 and 32 with corresponding drive lugs formed thereon. Container bottom guides 29 may be vertically positioned by any suitable external means (not shown) to suit different container heights. A lift bar 34 is fixedly mounted by any suitable means, at the upper end of the rod 16, to co-ordinate with the position of the carton guide 29. The lift bar 34 is adaptable to engage the bottom surface of a container 38 to raise the same to a position around a filler nozzle 40 (Figure 2)to fill the container by the so-called bottom-up technique, i.e., lowering the container 38 from around the filler nozzle during the filling operation at a rate commensurate with the flow rate of the liquid. The nozzle 40 is not shown in Figure 1 since Figure 1 illustrates the system 10 in its down position, whereas Figure 2 shows the system 10 in an up operational position. A retract-assist laterally extending member 42 is mounted at the upper end of the rod 18, adaptable to engage the upper edge of the container 38 while it is being lowered by the lift arm 26. As illustrated in Figures 2, 6 and 7, the member 42 and the lift bar 34 may accommodate multiple containers, such as the four shown, by having four fingers 43. It is apparent from Figure 1 and 2 that, as the heights of the containers 38 change, the distance between the lift bar 34 and the member 42 must change. The height of the member 42 is adjusted for the particular container heights by the adjustment device 12. The member 42 is held in its circumferentially oriented position by a suitable anti-rotation device 44. As shown in Figures 1, 2 and 4, the adjustment device 12 comprises a housing 46 mounted externally of the wall 9 and including a bearing 48 (Figure 1) having a square opening 50 formed therein for the extension therethrough of the square segment 18b of the rod 18. A sprocket 52 is mounted directly to the bearing 48. A second sprocket 56 is connected to the sprocket 52 by a chain 57. The sprocket 56 is rotatably mounted on a shaft 58 so as to rotate with a bevel gear of a typical right-angled bevel gear drive, represented as 60 (Figures 2-5). The right angled drive 60 is rotated by a remote actuator mechanism, such as a handwheel 62. Referring now to Figures 6-8, the anti-rotation device 44 includes vertical, longitudinally movable but circumferentially fixed guide rod 64 having a first bracket 66 extending therefrom to a sleeve 68 housing a bearing 70 mounted around a small diameter extension 18c of the upper rod segment 18a. To prevent the rod 64 from performing significant circumferential movement about the rod 18, a vertical plate 63 is positioned immediately adjacent the rod 64. The plate 63 is fixed to a vertical sleeve 65 encircling the rod 18 and fixed to the wall 9. As shown in Figures 6 and 7, a second bracket 72 is connected to the sleeve 68. The bracket 72, in turn, is secured by bolts 74 to the retract-assist laterally extending member 42. The member 42 may be quickly removed from the bracket 72 for cleaning purposes by utilizing hairpins 76. In operation, once adjustments are made to the lift bar 34 to accommodate the lifting of a different size container 38, the handwheel 62 is manually rotated to thereby rotate the right-angled drive 60 which, in turn, rotates the sprocket 56. The resultant rotation of the sprocket 56 rotates the sprocket 52 via the chain 57, serving to rotate the square segment 18b of the rod 18, thereby threadedly moving the lower round segment 18a either upwardly or downwardly in the block 20 (Figure 1). During such vertical and rotary movements, the rotating square segment 18b freely slides through the square opening 50 (Figure 1) in the bearing 48, to thereby raise or lower the retract-assist member 42 to accommodate a different height container 38. In an alternative embodiment, the retraction assistance could be by means of a vacuum cup applied to the bottom of the container instead of the finger 43 applied to the top of the container. It should be apparent that the system includes an efficient and easily usable adjustment arrangement for assisting in the lowering of various height containers during a bottom-up filling operation. It should be further apparent that the system includes a sanitary, externally accessible adjustment arrangement eliminating the need to ingress the machine.

Claims: Apparatus comprising a reciprocatory, substantially vertically oriented, elongate member (18) for driving a packaging element (38) in a substantially vertical stroke, an oscillatory member (26) connected to said elongate member (18) for reciprocating said elongate member (18) longitudinally, and adjusting means (18a, 18b, 27, 48-52) connected to said elongate member (18) for adjusting said elongate member (18) substantially vertically relative to said oscillatory member (26), thereby to adjust said stroke, said adjusting means (18a, etc.) comprising intermediate means (18a, 27) intermediate said oscillatory member (26) and said elongate member (18) and whereby rotation of said elongate member (18) about a longitudinal axis thereof relative to said oscillatory member (26) is converted into linear longitudinal motion of said elongate member (18) relative to said oscillatory member (26), characterized in that said adjusting means (18a, etc.) also comprises actuating means (48, 50) adapted to rotate said elongate member (18) about said longitudinal axis relative to said oscillatory member (26) and to permit said elongate member (18) to move in a direction of said longitudinal axis relative to said actuating means (48, 50) while rotating. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said oscillatory member (26) comprises a lift arm (26). Apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a segment (18b) of said elongate member (18) is of non-circular external cross-section and said actuating means (48,50) comprises a unit (48) embracing said segment (18b) and of non-circular internal cross-section so as drivingly to engage said segment (18b). Apparatus according to any preceding claim, and further comprising gear means (52-60) for operating said actuating means (48,50) , and a handle (62) for operating said gear means (52-60). Apparatus according to any preceding claim, wherein said packaging element (38) is a container (38) and said stroke is downward and wherein said elongate member (18) carries at its upper end a laterally extending member (42) for engaging the upper end of said container (38) for lowering said container (38). Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein said laterally extending member (42) extends unilaterally and wherein retention means (63,64)operatively connected to the unilaterally extending member (42) retains the unilaterally extending member (42) in a selected radial direction so as to extend over said upper end of said container (38). Apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said unilaterally extending member (42) comprises a plurality of unilaterally extending fingers (43) for extending over the upper ends of a plurality of such containers (38). Apparatus according to claim 6 or 7, wherein said retention means (63,64) is operatively connected to said elongate member (18). Apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said retention means (63,64) comprises a substantially vertical, longitudinally movable, but rotationally substantially fixed, elongate guide element (64), a sleeve (68) connected to said guide element (64), receiving the upper end of said elongate member (18) and having said unilaterally extending member (42) fixed thereto. Apparatus according to any preceding claim, and further comprising wall means (9) which bounds an aseptic chamber (11) and through which said elongate member (18) extends.

Inventors: OWEN BARRY CHARLES, OWEN, BARRY CHARLES
Applicants: ELOPAK SYSTEMS, ELOPAK SYSTEMS AG
Application year: 1994
Main classification: B65B43
IPC codes: B65B43, B67C3